Rogue Ales puts chill on Teamsters Union campaign

Northwest Labor Press:

Workers at the Rogue Ales brewery have plenty of reasons to unionize, says Chris Muhs, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 324.

For starters: Base pay for most of the 29 workers who produce and bottle beer at Rogue’s Newport, Oregon, craft brewery is Oregon’s $8.50-an-hour minimum wage. Bonuses of a dollar or more an hour are added, but are unpredictable and irregular, and workers don’t know how the bonuses are calculated. Minimum wage pay makes the company’s 401(k) match not very meaningful, and it makes it hard for workers to afford what even the company admits — on its website’s jobs page — is “bad health insurance.” Employees can pay over $800 a month for family coverage. To top it off, Muhs says, Rogue Ales has a habit of firing and rehiring workers, and posting and changing schedules with little or no notice.

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